Michael never knows what to write in these little description areas. Should he say something witty to make people laugh and remember him or does he do something snarky like quoting Hamlet. Well whatever he writes here, it is just only a brief glimpse inside.
Make your own choices, you'll stay if you want to.

Saturday, April 30, 2005

I got an iPod back in November and I totally love it. I've got more than 6000 songs, almost my entire CD Collection, and it's great to be able to just call up any song at any time (well as long as it's a Soundtrack or a Showtune, LOL).

I noticed the other day that in iTunes it keeps track of the last time that you listened to a song, the strangest thing is that I can look all the way back to when I got the thing and see the songs I listened to for the first time.

It is really bizarre if you think about it, keeping track of all the songs you've ever listened to. Out of 6000 songs I've probably only listened to about 5-8% of them, it's amazing to run through the list and look at all the songs I've yet to listen to.

Thursday, April 28, 2005

Okay, now that you've picked your teeth up off the floor, it's true. I've been using my home phone less and less because I have a good cell phone plan. The only reason I have a landline is so that I can have DSL connection.

I have a friend who is similar to me, only reason he has a phone line is because of the building intercom, and he told me his bill was like $12 a month. He had literally gotten rid of everything on his phone, caller id, forwarding, voicemail, blah blah blah.

So I did the same thing, and yeah my phone bill is like $12, and I know if someone is calling me on there it's either my mother or a telemarketer.

It's fun not having caller id, it's sort of like a game. The phone rings, you run through a quick list of people in your head, who could it be? When you answer there's that game where you have to recognize the voice by them only saying your name. It's actually quite fun when you think about it, very similar to Clue. It was My Mother calling from her Front Porch, with gossip about the neighbors.

And there are those times when you pick up the phone, say hello and there’s just dead silence. That’s when you know the real game is gonna start, because it’s a telemarketer. You compose yourself and in your best foreign accent you say “HHHHHHHEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOO?” and make your voice go up really high in the end.

75% of the time the telemarketer will hang up on your15% of the time they’ll say hello but then almost immediately 10% of the time, they’ll actually talk to you.

For those 10% of the calls, I decided I was going to speak in really bad Spanish, hey it’s fun. I get to practice and the telemarketer has a story to tell his co-workers.

So now, every time I know it’s a telemarketer, I’ll get on my best Papi accent and try to carry on a conversation with them.

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

I’ve not told anyone about my blog, and I mean no one, other than the traffic sites and the like (btw, THANK YOU Andrea, you’re such a sweetheart)

I’ve not told any of my friends that I’m doing this, not my best friends, not my mother, not my boyfriend, not the lady that lives next door, no one. I guess I sort of wanted a totally anonymous venue, someplace where I could be (well attempt to be) totally honest because no one knows me, other than by what I write. Does anyone else feel like that? I sometimes have a difficult time expressing myself with my voice, so I thought this would be a good way to practice.

But now I feel like I need to tell my boyfriend. Not that I’m doing anything naughty on here, (hell it’s actually REALLY TAME) but I want him to know about it. I don’t want him to think that I’m hiding anything from him, because I’m not, I want him to know why I’m doing this, and I’ll explain that to him (it’s too long to go into here).

Although, I’ve decided, I am not going to give him the URL so he can just come read it, that wouldn’t be fair either. I’ve actually placed it on a few profiles I have out there so I’m going to tell him that if he really wants to find it, he has all of the information available to find it, he just needs to search around a bit.

Do you think that’s fair of me? When you started blogging did you share with your friends from the start?

Well the boyfriend and I are off to Atlanta this weekend. I lived there from '93 to '00 and had a great time, but I've only been back a few times since I left.

A friend of mine is turning 40 and he's having a big party, but that's only part of the reason that we're going.

My boyfriend has been involved with Color Guard (rifle tossing, sabre tossing, it's hard to explain check out the link.) since he's been like 15 years old. It's a big part of his life and it's pretty exciting, I mean up until I met him a year ago I had no idea this counter-culture existed. But I'm getting off the point.

Ok, the boyfriend has been involved in Color Guard for many years, about 6 months ago my friend J from Atlanta sent me some pictures from their Halloween Party (that's a whole other story) and I was showing them to the boyfriend. In one of the pictures someone is "tossing" a rifle, and he asks me who that is, I have no idea. So I do some research and find out that my friend J has been in Color Guard for a long time as well, so he sends me a link to their website, etc., which I share with the boyfriend.

As we're looking at the website, we find a page that has the directors etc and the boyfriend says, "oh I know him" and I'm like really? That's MY friend?!?

Well come to find out, in the summer of 1987 they were on the same Color Guard Corps in Madison, WI and they were best of friends.....but they lost contact with each other.

I just find it so striking that we are both friends with J, but at different times in our lives and at completely different places...but somehow the two of us ended up together and a friendship has been rekindled!

- That I will do my best to have correct spelling (if I don't know it I'll look it up)- That I will have proper grammar, or is that grammer?- That I will attempt to be serious sometimes, but not always.- That I will post things that don't relate to anything else in the world.- That I will NOT post things going on in the worldwide news, there are enough other channels for that.- That I will try to go to the gym more often.

So my boyfriend asked me last night "have you told anyone that we said 'I love you" at which point I told him I had (I told my best friend J) but I didn't tell him that I posted here.

In fact, I haven't told any of my friends that I've started a blog.

Why is that? Well it's not because I'm going to trash them or anything (that's not my style) but I just sort of wanted to be anonymous a little bit in this big world of ours.

But just because I haven't told my friends, doesn't mean that I don't want them to know. I've actually given out a few clues to finding this, but they're sorta hidden. I've included it on some profiles I have here and there, but it's nothing blatant, something you have to look into and then go "ah, there it is."

I guess I could answer my boyfriend next time he asks and say "well yes I have told someone, Ii've told the world!"

This was the picture that did it for me. I knew that I had start sharing my craziness with other people. I enjoy taking pictures, and I enjoy trying to look at things differently. But somehow they always look the same. I also thought that a blog would help me practice, and so far it's done a lot of that.

I decided to start keeping a diary blog because I needed some help expressing myself and finding my words.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

I've got a parking spot, YEAH! Because parking in my neighborhood can be a hit or miss kind of thing. Well basically I come home from work, park the car and only go where public transit will take me, because I know later in the evening, I'll never find a parking spot.

So I got a parking spot behind my best friends apartment (you know the ones that live across the street), and I got a sweet deal $50 a month. They just put up a flyer in my building for a spot in the back and they want $140 a month!!! Outrageous.

So now I drive places, which is nice, but the only problem is every now and again there's someone in my spot.

There's a burger/hot dog eating place (I can't call it a restaurant or a fast food place, it's just a hole in the wall) in the same building where my friends live. And their one driver INSISTS on parking half in his spot and half in my spot. So twice now this week (and it's only Wednesday) I've had to ask them to move their car so I could get in my spot.

So who doesn't have a pet peeve? I've got lots of them, but basically they all revolve around one recurring theme: why are people so stupid?

I grew up in the country (WAY out in the country) and now I live in the great metropolis of Chicago. It's amazing how rude people can be, how inconsiderate people can be, all because they're thinking about themselves. Why can't people wait their turn?

I almost got hit by a car this morning because the jackass wasn't paying attention. He was trying to take a short cut (which really isn't a shortcut during rush hour - you try making a left turn against traffic), and I'm crossing the street (within my right) and he totally runs right in front of me, to the point where his window is down and I can see he's got a f*(king box of Dunkin' Donuts in the seat next to him. So he's trying to take this short cut and basically cuts me off and has the nerve to raise his hand and say "sorry".

The other thing that really bites my a$$ are those people who try to right lane you. You know they ride in the right lane on the freeway up until the point they have to merge and they force their way into traffic? Don't these people know how to wait?

I was in San Diego a few weeks ago, and I decided to go downtown, it was rush hour so I knew I'd sit in traffic, and I did for about 45 minutes, but you know what was funny....I was in the correct lane to make a left turn, but the traffic backup was caused by all the a$$holes who ran up to the end of the lane and forced their way into traffic.

Monday, April 18, 2005

It was 80 degrees today, the warmest day so far. I'm afraid that we're going to go directly from winter to summer, but I hope spring stays around a little while.

This evening it was so mild we decided to have our first hillbilly dining event of the year.

My best friends live across the street from me, we can see our apartments from each other and often we'll call and wave at each other.

My grill, which I've had since 1995, is over at their house. Really I figure that it's so old and it's going to explode, their place would be the best, I mean it's probably going to be torn down in a year or so anyway, an explosion may just help it along (Please dear god, don't let this happen).

Actually, I've live on the third floor and we have a non-existent back porch area that there is no place to put it. Plus my landlord won't let me have one anyway.

To make a long story short, I know - too late (that's my oldest line that I have), Jimmy stopped at the grocery store and got some steaks, so we grilled out.

Jimmy made a wonderful use of the grill, we had: grilled corn, steamed/grilled vegetable medly, and a mouth wateringly delicious steak. Tomorrow we're having Lemon/Pepper Chicken Breasts tomorrow for lunch, I can't wait!

I just realized that I've been carrying a purse. Well I shouldn't say "just realized" I've known for a while. While my boyfriend and I were on in London last year, I found this great little messenger bag. I've never been a "bag" person before, a bookbag here and there, but nothing beyond that. But a friend of mine got this beautiful messenger bag and I've been envious since then because it was just the perfect size....well, I digress, where was I? Oh yes, the purse.

Ok, we were in London, we were on the street shopping, spied a bag, liked it, bought it, while we were there some guy tried to sell us hash....ah London!

So I've been carrying this bag since then, and I love it because I can carry my iPod, my camera, a notebook, maybe a bottle of water, clip on the phone and I'm ready to go....but the only thing is, the strap goes across your chest, so it's sorta awkward putting on and taking off.

It's almost perfect, it's big enough to hold my thermos and magazines, it's not big engough to carry gym clothes. But it's just canvas and if you carry more than a few things it bulges here and there and the flap doesn't go down and it's not pretty anymore. It's sort of like the two faced girl on Seinfeld...that's a whole other topic.

So I like my new bag, but I still really like my "mini" me, so I guess I have two purses now.....my mother is going to be so proud!

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

I've used Yahoo Groups before and they're fairly intelligent....but msn groups just plain sucks. (Yes I know it's supposed to be capitalized, but I don't feel like they've earned it yet).

I had set up an msn group about 3 years ago and it was ok, just some pictures, some links, some files.

So I finally decided to actually USE the group. So I go through all my emails, get all the details together, write the letter, and press send.

Well now more than 24 hours later, the people that I sent the invitation to, still have NOT received it? WTF is up with that.

I thought that email was pretty quick, easy to send, even easier to receive. So I told some friends, well maybe you should check your spam filter, perhaps it thinks it was spam (you know how those ISP's love to "filter" out other ISP's email). Nope, not there.

So I decided that I would try sending invites to myself, well it's about 12 hours later now for that and.....again, still haven't received them.

About 8-9 months ago, I found out that a friend of mine works at the same place where a former co-worker of mine works.

I told him that next time he saw her to tell her hello and to give her my email address. Well a few weeks went by and eventually I forgot about it.

So today, I decide to clean out my Hotmail folders. I mean now that they give you 250 MB of storage I've got all sorts of crap in there. Well wouldn't you know, I found an email from my former co-worker! Somehow I had a filter set up and it moved it to another folder and I never read it.

I was recently in San Diego for work and was getting ready to return back east when I thought: “Wouldn’t it be cool if you could watch the sunrise in Manhattan and then watch the sunset in San Francisco, all on the same day?”

Friday, April 01, 2005

Last night went downtown to the Sofitel Hotel (it reminds me of that Expedia Commercial where the kids think about sending their parents to the “hi-tech” hotel), for a Johnnie Walker Black Label tasting.

30 minutes of open bar (but of course all they had was JW-Black), so got 3 cocktails in that amount of time. After the open bar, we all piled into one of the conference rooms and had a JW-Black Sampling/Tasting. The girl that ran the program was a bit annoying, she kept trying to use a Scottish accent but couldn’t keep it up. Hell I do a better accent than she ‘attempted’ to do, but hey it was free.

Did learn a lot about Scotch though, so it was educational, and again it was free. So after we were looped up on our fee cocktails and our tasting samples, we went home to get a much needed bite to eat. Ordered a pizza and decided to watch a movie. A new set of Netflix movies had arrived.

Included in the new movies was Auto Focus, the story of Bob Crane (Hogan’s Heroes) and how he got involved in making porn, etc, let’s just say there was an AWFUL lot of female nudity involved.Let’s just say that if we had been straight boys it would have been a wonderful evening, free Scotch, and boobies all over the TV. The only thing missing was a big Cuban cigar!